Exploring Texts through the Frameworks

Hamlet Task - you need to do this if you will be writing about Hamlet in your coursework

Hamlet's second major soliloquy comes at the end of Act 2. He is responding to an actor's presntation of grief on the stage and compares it to how he is dealing with his own grief. He compares how he is showing and acting on his grief to how the actor would show it if he were in Hamlet's situation.

We see a troubled Hamlet in this speech and he presents us with a range of emotions about himself, his father and Claudius. He is isolated from eveyone again, both physically, emotionally and in his inability to say anything to anyone about the murder of his father. There is focus on himself throughout - he is introspective, depressed, angry and full of self-loathing.

You need to explore how the langauge and structure convey the strength of Hamlet's feelings. You can write a framework analysis (see here for framework prompts) of the piece or respond to the questions on the sheet.

Once you have done that - continue your research using the resources from massolit


Other Poems

If you are not writing about Hamlet in your coursework, then you need to choose another poem that could help your understanding of the theme of death, isolation, family, motherhood other than the ones we have studied (see your booklet for suggestions or I can suggest one).

As practice for your exam (unseen texts), you need to make notes on the key ideas, attitudes and themes of the poem and pick out a range of supporting language features. Use the framework prompt sheet for help. You can use a film from the massolit website to help you - watch one of them and make notes.


This lesson or at home (in preparation for Monday's lesson), you need to start thinking about which poems / extracts you are going to comment on and what you are going to focus on in terms of theme and what the key ideas and attitudes are in that theme. Use this framework to help you.

Let me know if you are interested in gender - we can do some separate group work depending on numbers.